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When I went into Love on the Turquoise Land, I was excited, yes, but I wasn't expecting it to take me on a journey of heartbreak, happiness, worry, and anticipation. From the beginning, LOTL captivated me with it's fast-paced yet incredibly nuanced plot line, whether it was the carefully crafted backstory of each character that made them the way they are today. I initially held some degree of hesitation, as I don't typically watch stuff considered "supernatural" but LOTL was pleasantly surprising with this. In my opinion, the "supernatural" aspects are not far fetched ideas that are not fleshed out enough to have any real substance to them, but rather, these supernatural creatures involved have complex and distinct stories of how they came to be, their motives, and their history.


(SMALL) SPOILERS AHEAD
First thing I want to talk about (and praise) are all of the cast members. Each played their character extremely well and demonstrated a deep understanding for who their character is and not just their external motivations but even to some extent, the secrets their characters may hold.

Dilraba's Nie Jiuluo was beautifully crafted. Nie Jiuluo, or A Luo, started off as someone who was cold and detached from the world, which that in itself was such an interesting irony for me. A Luo, since she was young, has wanted to leave the Nanshan Hunters and live an ordinary life, as those in the Nanshan Hunters seem to almost live in their own world, yet when she was living among regular everyday civilians, she wasn't really a part of their world. In the beginning, A Luo lived in a limbo of sorts, between the world of ordinary people and the world the hunters lived in. Then, after she meets Yan Tuo and goes through several life-or-death situations, she slowly warms up to people as a whole and consequently becomes more integrated into the ordinary world but at the same time, with Yan Tuo's presence, she becomes more and more tangled up into the affairs of the Nanshan Hunters. What I especially loved to see was the subtle change in A Luo's character and I largely accredit that to Reba's acting. The micro-expressions and changes in tone of voice brought the character to life and made A Luo's character growth truly realistic and believable. As an avid fan of Reba, her acting in this (and her previous drama, Sword Rose) shows huge improvements and I can't wait to see what's next for her.

Chen Xingxu's Yan Tuo was a complex and layered character that I strongly believed not many actors can pull off. Especially in the beginning of LOTL, Yan Tuo was someone who had to adapt two different personalities to survive. One that was his true self, which he only showed to those closest to him, and one that was obedient, compliant, and essentially "perfect" for Lin Xirou and her companions. The second personality is what I find most interesting with Yan Tuo's character. He has to be smart enough to take on responsibilities in the Roushan group but not smart enough to detect anything wrong with Lin Xirou. It's a delicate balance that requires all the right expressions, interactions, and line delivery, and that balance is what I believe Chen Xingxu was able to achieve. At one moment, Yan Tuo could be cautious and wary of Lin Xirou and at the next moment, he is able to play her oblivious, young, loving, and grateful stepson. Additionally, his character contrasts Nie Jiuluo's well--- A Luo's character development was slow and no one is able to pinpoint the exact moment her character shifted while Yan Tuo's development was almost instant. Once he was fully exposed, Yan Tuo completely gave up the idea of upholding his old image in the eyes of Lin Xirou and let his hatred for her shine through. This is yet another irony I find interesting in the characters of LOTL. A Luo, compared to Yan Tuo, is more impulsive and "swift", while Yan Tuo is relatively calm and calculated, biding his time until the moment came, yet their developments mirrored each other's personalities more than their own.

Zhang Li's Lin Xirou was another character I found incredibly captivating. Even though she is the ultimate antagonist and mastermind behind almost all the problems in the show, the way the scenes and Zhang Li's understanding of her character made it impossible for me to fully hate Lin Xirou. As an actress, Zhang Li beautifully portrays the internal struggles of Lin Xirou and the necessity to still appear strong on the outside. Lin Xirou genuinely cared for Yan Tuo and truly saw him as family, and that line she said to Yan Tuo, "Your biggest helper in these lies wasn't your sculptor girlfriend or the Nanshan Hunters, it was me." was so powerful and captured so well the complexities of Lin Xirou as a person. In the eyes of everyone else, the Earth Fiends were heartless and ruthless. They existed as an entity and not a life capable of love and anguish but Lin Xirou's character proved those beliefs wrong. She knew Yan Tuo knew more than what he let on. She knew that one day, he would stand against her. Yet, she continued playing along with him, pretending she was oblivious to all Yan Tuo was doing and turning a blind eye to his repeated betrayals, and not for any ulterior motives. Yan Tuo held no importance to her mission or her survival. He wasn't her blood bag, he wasn't unconditionally loyal, and he wasn't even the same species as her. She repeatedly gave him chances to turn back because Lin Xirou came to genuinely love and care for the little boy she watched grow up. Like Yan Tuo, who wore two faces, Lin Xirou did the same and due credits should be given to Zhang Li too. On one hand, Lin Xirou was cold and calculating to ensure the assimilation and survival of her people, on the other hand, she played a loving stepmother who ignored all and any wrongdoings of Yan Tuo. To be able to capture the exact moment her character sensed something wrong, then immediately mask that concern takes hard work and dedication to the craft that is acting and I truly believe that like the rest of the cast, this drama would not be as good as it is.

All of the other supporting/side characters like Xiong Hei, Lin Ling, Feng Mi, Yu Rong, Que Cha, and even Xing Shen were all truly exceptional too. I wish I had time to go over how I found each of their characters interesting in their own right and all of the nuances written into their characters despite them being only support characters, but alas, this review would become way too long and there are still some points I would like to cover.

Second, I would like the praise the pacing and story telling of LOTL. One thing that I have found common in many cdramas are filler episodes. Whether it was small, unknown dramas or widely recognized dramas, the large majority of them shared one glaring weakness in my eyes: too many filler episodes. When I came into LOTL, I was expecting the same. This belief, of course, was pleasantly proven wrong. The pacing of LOTL was pretty much perfect. Each episode had me at the edge of my seat and wanting more. Had I started watching this when it first aired, I almost definitely would've binged this entire drama in less than 3 days.

The story telling was no different than the pacing, and when I talk about story telling, I don't just mean the plot, I'm factoring in the cinematography, the sequence of scenes (flashbacks included), and the use of camera angles. I don't even know how to describe it in a way that does it justice but the best way I can describe the cinematography in this drama is it sucks you into the story and makes it feel like you are watching it unfold with your own eyes, not just on a screen. The way this drama is shot, you would expect it to be a high-production movie. I also really enjoyed the way flashback scenes were utilized. Instead of letting the viewers see glimpses of the lead's backstory throughout the entire drama, the first few episodes lays it out pretty clearly for the audience. This decision not only allowed the audience to better understand and connect with the characters, it allowed most of the focus and curiosity to be on the antagonists--- the Earth Fiends. Instead of immediately revealing all of the information about them in the beginning, we, as the viewers, found out most of the information with the protagonists. This massively contributed to the captivating nature of LOTL and I believe this was one of its strongest advantages over the other cdramas.

Of course, I do also need to talk about the plot itself and not just the way it was presented to us. I found the plot to be incredibly nuanced and well-crafted. The world the male lead and female lead lives in is obviously fictional but the world building that was not just lost somewhere in the writing room was actually conveyed to a point that made the world feel real. Nothing happened without reason. One event led to another and all of the major plot points like Yan Tuo being trapped in the cave, Nie Jiuluo being stabbed by the Earth Fiends and barely clinging to her life, all of the Nanshan Hunters entering the Twilight Chasm ready to leave everything behind to build a peaceful world, Yan Tuo severely hurting Lin Xirou with Nie Jiuluo's bracelet, and so many other scenes I don't have enough time to list all of, they all happened to serve a specific purpose and built on each other, one way or another.

Now, since this is a review, it would be unrealistic if I only had praises, as I have yet to find the cdrama that I believe to be completely perfect in every aspect. While the story was more than satisfactory, I found the ending to be somewhat lacking. I didn't understand why Locust was never utilized by Xing Shen after he spent so long training him. I don't mean that Locust should have fought in the final battle but rather, after they escaped their initial cell, they quite literally had no more significance to the plot and I think they could have done something cool with him and Locust. Another thing I had a problem with was the lack of focus on the ending of the other characters. Sure, we had hints to the ending of Yu Rong and Que Cha, Lin Ling and Lu Xian, and Ms. Lu and uncle Changxi, however, they were just hints and in my opinion, did not provide a sufficient "end of story" for these beloved characters. Additionally, some very important people were left out of the ending too. We don't know what happened to the Nanshan Hunters, afterall, Xing Shen and Jiang Baichuan are both dead, the Mad Blade and Ghost Whip has more or less retired their positions to live a quiet and peaceful life, leaving only a handful of hunters left. Did they disband or is there a new leader elected? I understand the belief is the Earth Fiends have been fully taken care of, but it still stands that there are Earth Fiends alive and like they evolved to become human, they can evolve eventually to be able to cross that chasm. I will say however, leaving out the fate of the Nanshan Hunters can be intentional depending on how you look at it. The way I also see it, we don't know what became of the Nanshan Hunters for certain because Nie Jiuluo herself does not care what will happen to them and this story, in a sense, is told in her perspective. Another small problem I had with the ending was also how they dealt with Locust, which I touched on earlier. They basically handed them off to an animal control equivalent, but why and how did that not raise suspicions, as almost definitely, those researchers have never seen anything similar to an Earth Fiend? It was also implied Locust was Lin Xirou's child and Lin Xirou even asked about Locust but nothing ever came of it and Lin Xirou basically forgot Locust was in the hands of the Nanshan Hunters, as in the exchange, she did not ask for Locust. I just think it was such a missed opportunity to make the story more interesting and better craft Locust's character and existence in the film.

Still, my largest issues with the ending lies in two parts: Lin Xirou's death, and the amnesia plot. The defeat of Lin Xirou was something the show spent almost 30 episodes leading up to, yet the actual scene was less than like 2 minutes. It felt like her death ultimately didn't really matter. Also, in the final battle, it felt like they dehumanized her almost completely. She is shown to care about her people and at the very least, she was close with Feng Mi but after her friends and basically family started dropping like flies, she showed no care for them whatsoever. I still don't quite understand why Feng Mi was left behind to die and none of them even mourned her. I'm also not understanding why Nie Jiuluo ended up ultimately failing to kill Lin Xirou and it was her mother that had to do it. She was literally just shown expertly killing a number of Earth Fiends, yet when she reaches the most important one, she forgets how an Earth Fiend can be killed? That just seems really stupid and a plot hole. A more meaningful death would've been if Nie Jiuluo was able to ultimately kill Lin Xirou but the price of that would be her own "death" and when Yan Tuo watches Nie Jiuluo and Lin Xirou fall, he sees Nie Jiuluo's mother approach.

Onto the amnesia plot, in my opinion, it was unnecessary and too generic. Up to this point, LOTL had done such a good job with being unique and unpredictable but this plot was the exact opposite. I understand the need for there to be consequences to A Luo taking the Mad Blade medicine, but the whole "amnesia" thing doesn't even correlate. The excuse was that taking the medicine would essentially sever the ties to her emotions and whatnot and that's what caused her amnesia but that makes no sense because why would it only take away a few months of memories? The better plot to go with would've been that it permanently severed her emotions and the last two episodes are spent on Yan Tuo and the people around her trying to find a way to reverse the effects. At the very least, they should have gone with a different storyline if they stuck with the amnesia plot.

Like all stories throughout time and across the world, LOTL leaves many plot holes and questions unanswered behind like why did Nie Jiuluo have a special constitute that allowed for her blood to kill Earth Fiends and recover quickly, however, none of this should discourage anyone from giving this show a try. I know I talked a lot about how unsatisfactory the end was but I can promise you, it's not as bad as I make it sound. The ending wasn't amazing but it wasn't particularly bad either, I just left out a lot of the other details that I did really like for the sake of not just "glazing" this show.

Overall, this is definitely a really good watch and if you like action, thriller, romance, any of that good stuff, you will definitely have a great time watching Love on the Turquoise Land and I hope that for whoever gives this drama a try, you have as amazing of an experience as I did.